i take HRT but a couple of years ago i decided i didn't need it and quit. welllllllllll, talk about total freakin' brain busting brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeeeek! i don't know how to express the sensation of having a mind entirely out of control. unable to concentrate, getting upset to the point of distraction over things like the invasion of Iraq and such stuff. absolutely zero ability to 'chill'.

taking HRT helps the emotional roller coaster stuff but it's the dexedrine that's really done the trick. i'm alert, alive, better than ever.

so if perimenopause makes ADHD worse, when does it get better? the ADHD, not the perimenopause.:)

I'm working on your question, Solitary. I do know that author Sari Solden has written on Women and Add, so please consider this avenue in the meantime. I'm not positive, but believe she has addressed perimenopause, et al.

In the meantime, please keep hanging in there, and utilize this forum whenever you need to vent.

Take care,

Cynde

I found this link, Solitary. I hope you find it a helpful one. :)
http://www.addvance.com/help/women/transitions.html

I certainly believe it does. I never even knew I had ADD until about a month ago.

I'm 42 and started seeing my doctor about six months ago for anxiety, worry, mood swings, inability to concentrate/focus, lack of motivation, etc. I felt completely overwhelmed by everything at home and work, and I blamed it all on hormones. To complicate matters, I'm a breast cancer survivor, so I can't take BCP's or any other type of hormonal treatment.

My doctor put me on Effexor (which helps with hot flashes too), and I did see some improvement with the anxiety, worry and mood swings, but it did nothing for my ability to concentrate or my motivation at home. I was getting more and more overwhelmed at work, and I couldn't keep up with things at home.

After learning about Adult ADD quite by accident, I made an appointment with a psychologist who agreed that based on my symptoms and history, I could very well have ADD. My doctor prescribed Strattera for me, but I had terrible side effects from it and refused to take it again after the very first day. I've since seen a psychologist who prescribed Adderall, and it really seems to be helping a LOT.

In the research I've done, I've seen several references to the effect of hormonal changes on ADD, including the link Ms_Sunshine posted above. There's another article on that same site that I found helpful:

http://www.addvance.com/help/women/hormones.html

There was one part that really stood out to me:

Perimenopause is also a time associated with mood changes and the onset of depression in some women who have had no previous history of the disorder. These women report feeling sad, irritable, tired and worried, as well as having difficulty sleeping. This depression and the cognitive deficits associated with decreasing levels of estrogen that occur as a woman enters menopause, combined with ADD (ADHD) symptoms may cause a woman with ADD (ADHD) to have difficulty coping her ADD (ADHD) symptoms as well as she was previously. She may find herself becoming less functional as she enters this phase of her life. I find this is often the reason why a woman seeks help for her ADD (ADHD) for the first time in her late 30s, 40s, and 50s. At that time, she may present to a physician with full-blown ADD (ADHD) or a worsening case, if they have been diagnosed previously.

that's very good. thanks.

it's also very true.

i'm working now on investigating some major life changes. like selling my business, moving to a place far from here, working in a different situation, leaving my adult children behind because i know they are competent, and divorcing an overgrown dependant child...oh, husband. i've done all the raisin' i've ever wanted to do. enough already. (he's not the father of my children.)

i have discovered that my tolerance for b.s. has become extremely low. people who routinely attempt to violate my boundaries are people i cut out of my life. i've changed and some people want to desperately maintain the status quo even though i've explained to them that this isn't going to work anymore. they cling to it until i finally have no other option than to cut my connection to them.

being perimenopausal and finally being treated for ADHD has made my perspective on my own life clearer. i've got something to look forward to now. i'd given up on my dreams and saw nothing but endless repetitive colourless days stretching over the horizon. no more. i owe it to myself to have a life that i live fully.

I had my kids late in life and was still nursing my youngest at age 44. When I weaned my baby, I hit perimenopause and ADD hell pretty hard. I didn't even realize it was ADD and I watched my previuosly pretty successful coping mechanisms just come apart. When I talked to one doctor about it, he suggested HRT (which probably would have helped but I have a family history or breast cancer and wouldn't chance it), so he suggested a shot that would put me into immediate menopause for six month per shot -- lovely! Didn't seem to realize that the symptoms might actually get worse after menopause as estrogen levels continued to drop, not to mention the fact that I wasn't anxious to immediately dive into and increased risk for all kinds of other health problems. I hope someday doctors will be better informed, but I guess until then we'll have to keep working to inform ourselves. Thanks for posting the article and the clipping -- they were helpful!

Scattered

Hi

I have a name for this stage of my life - ADDOPAUSE! I was also diagnosed with ADD as a result of hitting menopause. I've been on a roller coaster for the past 8 months of trying to find the right medication combination. They mention in the articles that stimulant medication often doesnot work as well with menopause but what I can seem to find is whether taking HRT will fix the problem. Logically it would seem to make sense.

I am presently taking Concerta, Wellbutrin, Prozac & Premarin (Estrogen). Things are certainly better than they were last fall, the Wellbutrin & Prozac combo has helped the depression a lot & I initially got considerable benefit in being able to concentrate & apply myself at work with the Concerta but that has disappeared over the past 6 weeks or so. It is very frustrating to have finally experienced having my day go by relatively quickly at work & be really productive without clockwatching & have every minute feel like an agony, then to loose it and go back to twiddling my thumbs & beating myself up for not doing my work.

We don't have Adderall in Canada & most doctors don't seem to want to consider Dexadrine. There is also a real lack of expertise with medication for adults with ADD, most of the time I feel like I am educating them. I have tried the maximum dose of every type of Ritalin but I can seem to get any significant improvement. I'm seeing my doctor again this week to try & stress how difficult I am finding it at work.

Hang in there gals!

adderall is back on the canadian market and if that's what works for you, you should be able to get it.

According to Ratey and Hallowell in Answers to Distraction, HRT is helpful with many ADD women. There is a good chapter called "Perchance to Dream" that talks about ADD and women (I can't remember if it is in Answers to Distraction or Delivered from Distraction). Sari Solden's book Women with Attention Deficit Disorder also utilizes some of their information and lots of other good stuff that is specific to women.

Hallowell also talks about how initial gains from meds are frequently not maintained without education, support (counseling, coaching, support group), strategies and structures. All three of their books have great tips that can supplement medication. I've found the more exercise I get the better my medication works too -- it doesn't having to be anything fancy -- walking works great.

Scattered

In my experience, having that hormonal change every 23 days was far more difficult than anything I experienced in peri-menopause. I self-diagnosed as ADD (with confirmation from my daughter:rolleyes: ) after I was actually menopausal - just before my 54th birthday.

I don't have health insurance to have a doctor or psyc-ist make the diagnosis, and probably couldn't take the meds even if I had insurance to pay for them. I'm allergic to some prescription meds and others seem to work differently for me than they do for the vast majority of people. The one thing that we're not told to expect with peri-menopause along with the hot flashes and mood swings and lack of energy... is the anxiety attacks. I belong to an Aging Gracefully discussion board and a lot of the women there experienced anxiety attacks for the first time during menopause.

I recently heard on a news program that HRT merely delays menopause. If you stop HRT you start menopause again.

I was also reading somewhere (sorry memory fails me not as to where) that some women who go on HRT have trouble ever getting off it, even if they didn't have symptoms before they do after they've been on HRT whereas for most women not taking HRT the symptoms gradually improve over time. No personal experience here --just some stuff I read about recent research.

I've tried Estroven Extra Strength and it seemed to help my symptoms a lot, but I had to reduce my Concerta dosing because I was getting palpitations and such. Might want to run anything you add past your doctor first (suggestion from hindsight!:rolleyes: ).

Scattered

Check out this link: http://www.ncgiadd.org/index.html

Patricia Quinn and Kathleen Nadeau are researching the effects of lowered estrogen levels on females with AD/HD. Check out their book "Understanding Women with AD/HD". Quinn and Nadeau have been looking at statistics showing that both AD/HD and lowered estrogren levels exacerbate the symptoms of the other. They both have AD/HD; one is an M.D., the other a PhD, and they've written a number of books and articles. Hallowell's and Ratey's "Distraction" series are also excellent.

This means starting at puberty, and continuing once a month through our reproductive years, into perimenopause and menopause, we don't get just "weepy", we get PMS times 10 (PMDD), beyond a "syndrome". Other symptoms are blown out of proportion as well.

My own experience with HRT: it helped with the hot flashes, night sweats, etc. until a mammogram showed a lump - turned out to be benign but the type caused by HORMONES! Had to go off the HRT...all the symptoms came back. Since then, every third month or so my PMS is so bad that have suicidal ideations. This is scary...

Acupuncture has been working well for me, for both hormonal and AD/HD symptoms. I still take Ritalin and Zoloft however, but we're working on that. Taking a leave of absence from graduate school has been both very sad for me, as well a load off my mind. The absence of stress that I was dealing with trying to keep up is wonderful. (As an aside, I'm not stupid, I have a grad g.p.a. of 3.91, I'm just typically AD/HD and it's gotten worse in the last 2 years since going off of HRT.)

BTW, I'm 50, diagnosed with AD/HD in 2001 (almost 5 years ago now), about the same time I started HRT. I'm thinking of doing my master's on the effects of ADHD and hormones on learning in females, since with AD/HD often come learning disabilities.

Oh look at the time...How time flies when you're having fun...thanks for the forum to spout off!

Liz

Thanks for the link and I'd love to read that Master's paper! I'd like to see a lot more research done on this. "That time of the month" has always been a big deal for me (I loved the four years I was nursing one or the other of my two girls and didn't have period or the moods that came with it). Soon after I weaned my youngest (I was 44 at the time:eek: ), I hit perimenopause and the hormone drop from weaning at the same time! :faint: It really messed me up and I didn't realize at the time what had hit me. My ADHD symptoms (didn't know that's what they were at the time, although I had been diagnosed as a kid) got dramatically worse.

I've also had thoughts of hurting myself at that time of month, and my husband says I turn into a real ..... (not allowed to use that kind of language here). It's much worse than it has ever been before. Sure wish I knew an easy, safe cure for it.

Thomas Brown also writes a bit about this in his book Attention Deficit Disorder: The Unfocused Mind in Children and Adults.Some recent neurological studies seem to indicate that estrogen effects the release and reuptake of dopamine. Fun, fun -- never knew my "childhood hyperactivity" would come back and bite me in the back side at this stage of life! It is at least good to know now what is going on -- I felt I was going crazy or turning into a bad person for unknown reasons. Estroven Extra Strength has helped me a lot. Is that considered safe for you to take? I read some of the research on it and it appeared to be safe and possibily even preventative for breast cancer by binding the estrogen respector sites with phytoestrogens.

Scattered

Well this really sucks. I have always thought that it would get better when I got older can't really imagine it getting worse. Hope my other problems don't get worse too at menopause. I'm barely holding ti together now LOL Just more to look forward too